Greatest Pitcher Ever and why?

Answer 1

I can go as far back as the 1950's and 1960's and have been at the stadiums to see Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan and all of the others. The one that is far above the others without question in my mind is Sandy Koufax. He pitched at a time when there was no gun to measure the speed of the fastball but he had that 100mph fastball and maybe the best curveball ever. In those days a good starting pitcher would average eight innings per start and over (300) innings per season. All of these innings cut his career short but during the four year spand in the early 1960's when he had a no hit game in four straight seasons he had to be the best ever. On those days when he had everything going just right he would strike out (15) or more batters and the other team might get a hit or two. Mays, Aaron, Clamente, Schmidt, Bench or any of the other great players could not touch Koufax when he was on his game, which was most of the time. Also, I believe Koufax would be the answer to your question if you were to ask any of the players that had to hit against him. I have never seen anything like Koufax and I have been a fan of the game for many years.

Answer 2

Jim Palmer pitched for the Orioles from 1965 to 1984 with the exception of 1968. During that time frame they had exactly 1 losing record. In 1967 the Orioles were 76-85 and Palmer only pitched 9 games that year. To say "he could've won more than 300 but played for sum SUCKY Orioles teams" is crazy. Between 1965 and 1984 the Orioles won 1847 games, 98 more than any other team in the majors. The reason he didn't win 300 games was due to injuries and arm fatigue. After turning 33 he only won a total of 53 games. Also, I would consider Walter Johnson one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pitcher of All Time. Now he was somebody who pitched for some SUCKY teams! His 1913 season when he went 36-7 with an ERA of 1.14 might be the best season ever by a pitcher.

Answer 3

Depends on if you're a purist or not . A purist would pick a guy like Gibson, Koufax, Ryan, and such . But credit needs to be given to a guy who did everything . And no pitcher has done as much all-around, than Babe Ruth . When we analyze and grade other players, ALL of their stats are taken into consideration . For example, a short-stop with less than 10 errors is doing very good . But if his batting average isn't much, he's not getting into the Hall of Fame . Well , Babe Ruth did it all . And better than anybody else too . I'd bet that most 35 and under folks don't even know about Babe's huge success as a pitcher !!

Answer 4

Steve "Lefty" Carlton. I looked up his stats the other day, totally dominant, just was on a bad team. Like the year he was on the Phillies, he went 27 - 10, but the team only won 59 games. Now that's a shame, because he was a great pitcher, just not on the greatest team.

Seriously, though, this guy is never considered, and should be. Although he's weird, he was an amazing pitcher.

Answer 5

Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, or Roger Clemens.

Johnson: over 5900 IP in 21 seasons (and usually playing with a bad Senators team), always among the league leaders in ERA (five titles), third-highest career adjusted ERA (behind Grove and not-done-yet Pedro Martinez). Immense total value. In terms of durability and dominance, only Clemens comes close. Held the career record for strikeouts for decades, which is a nice bonus point.

Grove: eight league ERA titles in an 11-year period, nine titles overall, and over half of this came in the high-scoring 1930s era. That is an unreal peak, and gets him the second-highest career adjusted ERA. Several strikeout titles as well. Got a late start in the majors (age 25) because his minor league team didn't want to sell him; had he come up at age 20 or 21, we'd probably have a third 400-game winner, and Grove might have pushed Johnson aside decisively (as it is, Johnson pitched about 2000 more innings, and that's too huge a difference to overlook; innings pitched are valuable).

Clemens: still going. Dominant over a 20-year-plus period of high offense, relief pitching, designated hitters, stingy umpires, batting armor, and bats designed to untangle the twistiest of pitches. Seven Cy Young Awards, with an 18-year span between the first and (apparently) last ones. The last starting pitcher to take home a league MVP Award (which says more about the writers than it does about Clemens). His worst season (by adjERA) was a whisker below league-average. This man could strike out 5000 and win 400 games if he wants to; we'll see. Some guys pitch great; Clemens is a great pitcher.

I'm leaving Pedro Martinez out of contention simply because he hasn't put up enough innings yet, his health always a problem. If he comes back strong, showing flashes of classic Pedro, goes to age 40 with 180+ IP per season, gets his wins over 250, and keeps his all-time best career adjERA where it is or higher, he'll definitely shove his way into the discussion. But not yet.

Anyway... depending on what you want from "greatest", Johnson is tops the career value, Grove in peak (and an extended one at that), Clemens a cross between the two with the caveat that he still isn't retired. If he comes back in 2008 and 2009 (and he could) and winds up with 380+ wins and around 5000 strikeouts and doesn't damage his career ERA much, the debate may be over.

Answer 6

Nolan Ryan is NO WHERE CLOSE to the greatest pitcher.
Yes, he had the most K's, but his lead in career strikeouts is no where close to his lead in walks.

He won 20 games twice, never won a Cy young, has just over a .500 winning percentage.

While his H/9IP ratio was great, he walked 200 batters in a season a number of times.

7 no hitters, none of them perfect games means he had a hard time being hit, but an equally hard time staying around the plate. I think Joe Cowley had a no hitter (he won 4-1) and walked 7, striking out 8.

Koufax would be a great choice if not for the fact that he had only 5 dominant years.

Lefty Grove is another possibility.
However, I think modern time dictates Maddux on the finese side and Clemens on the Power side.
Older era says Walter Johnson or Christy Mattewson.

Johnson struck out 3700 batters and it remained a record for 6 decades.
He had over 100+ shutouts in his career as well and a really low ERA.

Really, the Cy Young award should be the Walter Johnson award.

Answer 7

Nolan Ryan

He played in a record-tying 27 seasons. Ryan still holds many major-league pitching records, some by such wide margins over previous marks that they will likely stand for many years. He was inducted in to the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Ryan, a hard throwing right handed pitcher, threw pitches which were regularly recorded in the 100-mph range, even past the age of 40. The media tagged him "The Ryan Express" (a reference to the 1965 film Von Ryan's Express).

Ryan was an eight-time MLB All-Star, and his 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history. He leads the runner-up, Roger Clemens, by approximately 1,200 strikeouts. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962—walking over 50% more men than any other pitcher in Major League history.

Ryan is also the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher. He is tied with Bob Feller for the most one-hitters with 12.

Answer 8

Cy Young. His all-time record of 511 career wins will never be touched. Today's greatest pitchers struggle in the twilight of their careers just to get to 300.

There is a reason why the yearly award for the most valuable pitcher in each league is named after him.

Answer 9

Roger Clemens is the best living pitcher, and maybe the best of all time. I put him ahead of Walter Johnson and Grover Alexander because he has pitched in the what is know as the live ball era. Sure, those guys amassed more innings than he has so far, but he is second on the all time strike out list, and has a career 3.10 ERA while pitching against the likes Canseco, Griffey, McGuire, and Thome.

Answer 10

Bob Gibson because of him the mound was lowered 5" after striking out a record (and still holds)15 batters Game 1 1963 world series
in 1968 he had a 1.12 ERA 13 shutouts and earned only 2 runs in 98 innings pitched